I’m building a new log home and am exploring my HVAC options. I have 55 ac of timber so burning wood is going to be tough to beat. I’d like to be able to heat the house/garage and future pole building.
For those of you who currently have one…do you like them?? Are they worth the effort? Are there better manufacturers? Going off of websites only, Central Boiler seems to have the most sophisticated furnaces(not sure if electronics on an outdoor furnace is good or bad).
Thanks…Justin
First of all is it legal in your City. Unless you live on some acreage most Municipalities have ordinances against them. I live in Town so it is not an option for me. My Bother has 2 one for home one for work shop and loves them. He does have forced air furnace for back up in case its to nasty to go outside such a blizzard etc or if they need to go out of town.
Mwal
Check to see if there are any ordinances against having them where you live. My father and cousins have run them for years, they heat houses, garages, greenhouses, and sheds. Make sure you locate it far enough and downwind from your dwellings, this will normally be east of the buildings.
Also check into Wood Gasification Furnaces, much more efficient, cleaner burning, and very little smoke.
Just let the fire burn out mid May on our central boiler model CL5036 (198 gallons of water). That completes our 3rd year w almost zero money spent on propane. We saved $500 via a refer-a-friend program (BIL had one 3 yrs prior). We heat 2400 sq ft home w forced air furnace. The DIY install was moderate complexity as we plumbed hot water heater as well. Now I’d like to add a 2nd pump (max for this model) & run a line to 2 stall garage, hot tub (FW dream) & 3 season porch radiator. I stoke it twice a day w 3, sometimes 4 chunks of wood. If mild, once per day. Back up is LP. If u have immediate access to wood, is legal where u live & u find cutting, splitting & stacking wood as therapeutic, don’t hesitate. I feel it’s a good alternative energy source, lol… I did not go with the high efficiency model as I rarely have time (darn fishing) to get a 2 year supply of wood drying & on hand. All i need now is a thermostat that can run the boiler, a/c and backup LP furnace. right now i switch wires fall & summer. i know they make an over priced commercial model but to date I’ve not found an affordable residential model. If there’s anything else I can answer, holler.
Kurt
I’ve heated my log home with a Taylor wood stove ever since the day we built it back in 2001.
I love it but at the age of 55, cutting wood is getting harder each and every year. Basically, the days of cutting 5 loads of wood are over and I have to settle for a load or two per day instead.
But if you’ve got access to good hard wood, I say go for it.
You will definitely save money but it is a trade off as it will require your time & some good old fashioned, hard work to cut enough wood. There have been several years where we’ve heated our home on wood alone. We fill the propane tank at the beginning of winter but that’s pretty much the last time it needs filling until spring.
Our house is all in-floor heat with a backup boiler and it works great. I can fill the wood stove, head off on vacation and when the wood burns out, the boiler automatically kicks in.
As mentioned earlier, make sure you put the wood stove down wind. Which in most cases is on the east side of you house.
A chimney extension is also a great idea. If I had to do mine over again, the chimney extension would go on right from the start. It makes a difference on those days when the wind does blow out of the east.
Quote:
Our house is all in-floor heat with a backup boiler and it works great. I can fill the wood stove, head off on vacation and when the wood burns out, the boiler automatically kicks in.
Hey Joel –
I run a Central Boiler that heats a radiator in the furnace, the water heater and in-floor heat in the basement.
The furnace is LP(as a backup) but I have a separate thermostat that controls the fan when wood burner is going. It blows based on the temp in the house.
I just have plain treated water in my wood burner so if I let the wood burn down too far, the water would freeze.
Do you run Anti-Freeze in your water so you can let it shut down like that??
Going on vacation is tricky for me since I have to find someone to fill the wood burner once a day…
Sorry, didn’t mean to steal the thread…I love the outdoor burner for all the reasons listed !
Quote:
Quote:
Our house is all in-floor heat with a backup boiler and it works great. I can fill the wood stove, head off on vacation and when the wood burns out, the boiler automatically kicks in.
Hey Joel –
I run a Central Boiler that heats a radiator in the furnace, the water heater and in-floor heat in the basement.
The furnace is LP(as a backup) but I have a separate thermostat that controls the fan when wood burner is going. It blows based on the temp in the house.
I just have plain treated water in my wood burner so if I let the wood burn down too far, the water would freeze.Do you run Anti-Freeze in your water so you can let it shut down like that??
Going on vacation is tricky for me since I have to find someone to fill the wood burner once a day…
Sorry, didn’t mean to steal the thread…I love the outdoor burner for all the reasons listed !
No, we do not use anti-freeze in the water system from the wood stove. We have one closed loop water system coming from the wood stove and another closed loop system for water heating the floors. The pumps that push water thru each of these systems are linked together. If one pumps starts, so does the other one.
This cause’s the heat exchanger to work both ways. If the house calls for heat, it’s provided first by the wood stove water. If there’s no heat in that water, the boiler kicks in and not only heats the house but also send enough heat back into the water from the wood stove to keep if from freezing.
Our wood stove water is generally around 180 degrees coming into the house when burning wood. I don’t remember how warm it stays when the boiler heats the house and sends warm water back to the wood stove.
An odd thing about our house: When we burn wood, the house is very warm. The colder it gets outside, the warmer our house is. When we rely on the boiler to heat the house, for whatever reason, it doesn’t stay quite as warm in the house.
What I believe is happening is that when burning wood, warm water is always immediately available so when the house calls for heat, it’s there instantly. When the house calls for heat from the boiler, some of the warm water heat is stolen from the house in order to keep the water from freezing in the wood stove.
Some wood stoves are filled with anti-freeze and I know that’s expensive to do as well.
Not saying our system is the best but if I heat consistently with wood all winter, it is pretty cheap.
I would look more at the European boilers way before I would look at most boilers built here. I would go with no less then a Gasification boiler. Way more efficient run properly there is hardly any smoke and most meet or exceed EPA air quality standard. They will use way less wood I have an Eko 40 Gasification boiler heating roughly 4200 sq feet including the garage and I use less then 6 chords a year.
You can also install a simple heat exchanger on your hot water heater and use the wood to heat your hot water. Our installer uses a 1/2 inch copper tube inside a 3/4 inch copper. The 1/2 inch is a closed system that keeps your house water inside it and the 3/4 circulates the wood heated water. Works great and you get “free” hot water.
Thanks guys….I’m building on 55ac so there aren’t any ordinances against outdoor furnaces since its considered Ag. I don’t mind cutting wood and hopefully in a few years my kids will be old enough to help out as well. Anyone have any brands besides Central or Taylor?
Quote:
I would look more at the European boilers way before I would look at most boilers built here. I would go with no less then a Gasification boiler. Way more efficient run properly there is hardly any smoke and most meet or exceed EPA air quality standard. They will use way less wood I have an Eko 40 Gasification boiler heating roughly 4200 sq feet including the garage and I use less then 6 chords a year.
For the record, that would be cords of wood.
And 6 cords of wood per year to heat that much space is pretty impressive. Sure wish that system would have been available back in 2001 as cutting wood is getting harder by the year.
Quote:
I would look more at the European boilers way before I would look at most boilers built here. I would go with no less then a Gasification boiler. Way more efficient run properly there is hardly any smoke and most meet or exceed EPA air quality standard. They will use way less wood I have an Eko 40 Gasification boiler heating roughly 4200 sq feet including the garage and I use less then 6 chords a year.
That is an amazing reduction in the amount of wood, I take it that is 6 full cord not face cord? I will be buying 1/2 of my parents home from my sister and will be looking at replacing the original wood boiler with a gasification unit. What kind of cost would I be looking at?
How much wood do you go through Joel? I guess I’m in for a surprise…6 cords of wood sounded like a lot to me.
Quote:
How much wood do you go through Joel? I guess I’m in for a surprise…6 cords of wood sounded like a lot to me.
It varies greatly year to year. Lots of factors involved here.
Like how cold a winter it is and especially, how much wind we have when it’s really cold outside. How good the quality of the wood you have is also a big one. Oak, Elm and other quality hard woods will last 10 times longer than burning crap wood like Box Elder, Maple or other soft woods.
That doesn’t mean we don’t ever burn crap wood but we’re careful about when we burn it. That stuff works best when its not that cold out. Save your good wood for when its really cold and windy.
I only heat around 1800 square feet but on average, we probably use between 4-6 cords per year.
Some years we use a lot less and some years we actually use more.
Quote:
How much wood do you go through Joel? I guess I’m in for a surprise…6 cords of wood sounded like a lot to me.
My parents home is old and not very well insulated, plus they keep it at 85 degrees. They burn a lot of wood, I would guess this last year they burned 12 to 15 full cord.
This is heating an old farm house and a 30 x 24 garage.
My in-laws have a big Central Boiler unit to heat a large pole building and their home. The more square footage to heat means more wood to burn. Burning wood is cheap, no doubt. But, add up the equipment and time to get the wood out of the woods is another story. About 10 loads like this gets them through a lower Michigan winter.. 
It’s a lot of work.
Quote:
My in-laws have a big Central Boiler unit to heat a large pole building and their home. The more square footage to heat means more wood to burn. Burning wood is cheap, no doubt. But, add up the equipment and time to get the wood out of the woods is another story. About 10 loads like this gets them through a lower Michigan winter..
Just for comparison:
My house is 1500 sq ft, main level and basement. I heat it and have a heat exchanger on the water heater. I start it about Oct. 20 and run until temps stay in upper 40’s in the spring. House is usually about 70 degress. I have it plumbed to the in-floor in the basement. I can get that warm, shut it off and it’s toasty for days down there.
It’s hard to say but I’d say I use about 1 of them loads…maybe 2. Newer house, insulated well.
If I had to cut 10 of them loads…think I’d have to call it quits!
But I agree, lots of variables. Type of wood, how much area you heat and how cold the winter is.
Roughly 6 full cords, some years less but that was last winter.
As Joel said wood makes a difference and how dry it is like him there are times we burn junk wood. A gasification boiler should run about 2000 degrees when running properly since we don`t have storage it basically runs like our furnace. The complete system holds about 75 gallons of water when the thermostat calls for heat the boiler kicks on and runs until the demand is met then it shuts down to idle mode using hardly any wood.
I would have a zone put in under a portion of your driveway. Not sure how much extra that would cost but man no shoveling.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
